Africa : International Officials Stress the Need for Social Justice As Part of a Sustained Commitment to Employment (AllAfrica.com) |
| Posted: 19 Feb 2010 02:43 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. MediaGlobal (New York) Ryan Dicovitsky 18 February 2010 International figures at the UN stressed on 18 February that both developing countries and the international community must continue efforts to protect employment in the wake of the global economic crisis. At an event to mark the second annual World Day for Social Justice (which occurs on 20 February), a panel of experts on labor and economics claimed that the effects of the crisis have not dissipated and could grow stronger without national commitments to combat unemployment. Poorer developing nations must take even more careful steps to ensure that they can sustain employment, in light of the fact that their economies were already facing structural issues before the global economic crisis began. Raymond Torres, the Director of the International Labor Organization's International Institute for Labour Studies, told MediaGlobal that there needs to be a "different development approach," highlighting that poorer countries often had an "excessive emphasis on exports." Another panelist, David Arkless, also stated that developing countries need to change their national policies to protect jobs. Arkless, the President of Global Corporate and Government Affairs at Manpower Incorporated and a labor advisor to multiple rich and poor nations, explained to MediaGlobal what he feels is critical to ensuring job stability through the rest of the financial crisis. "First off, they need to stop being so corrupt," Arkless said. He illuminated that in his interactions with developing countries, corruption has been a major impediment to ensuring healthy economic growth and employment for the population. He went on to argue that countries in Africa (including the nation of Swaziland, which he advises) need to take a more assertive role in overseeing who invests in their country, at what price, and under what condition. With bountiful natural resources, his view was that governments should take a larger role in determining how outsiders contribute to the national economy. While national priorities and policies were a key topic of the event, all of the experts agreed that international efforts are also critical to promoting not only a healthy job market, but a socially-just one. For instance, the issue of migrant workers has become a major issue over the past few years. Workers who travel from one country to another for work often find that their job prospects are slim after migration, or are abandoned by employers unable to continue employing them under current economic conditions. As a result, migrant workers are left as de facto displaced individuals. "There is no global organization responsible for migrant workers," said Arkless. He pointed to the International Organization for Migration as a model, but noted that the body has a largely advisory role and no power to stop the abuse of migrants. The UN was acknowledged as equally important in dealing with employment issues. Nurbek Jeenbaev, the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the UN and responsible for the coordination of the event, described to MediaGlobal how "the role of the UN is very important," and that it helped his country achieve gains in social and economic development. He noted UN assistance in achieving poverty reduction and employment gains, along with assistance from the International Labor Organization in implementing the Kyrgyzstan's national employment policy (the International Labor Organization is a UN agency). Despite the need for more action, Torres explained that governments are nervous. In response to the economic crisis, governments across the globe injected huge amounts of money in their economies to maintain growth and production, thus keeping workers employed. However, those financial commitments have led to worries about long term debt and deficits, raising the possibility of a slowdown in government spending. If that were to occur prematurely, market growth could begin to slow, along with employment. Arkless agreed, and claimed he was worried about where labor markets are headed. In the past thirteen economic downturns, jobs would soon begin to appear quickly afterward. However, in the current economic crisis, that hasn't been the case. For national governments, some existing development policies could be helpful in maintaining employment rates. Torres praised systems such as India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which is more focused on domestic markets. He claimed that regional associations and trade, such as those of the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are also of value to national economies because those economiesmore diversified under a regional association and require various types of jobs to be filled. Although the theme of social justice appeared to be overwhelmed by economic theory and figures, the experts all pointed out that decent work and wages must be part of policies which respond to the economic crisis. In addition to the issue of migrant workers, Arkless also lamented that the crisis has brought a huge rise in human trafficking, now totaling 50,000 individuals per day. With the World Day for Social Justice and the International Labour Organization committed to decent employment and workers' rights, the international community is taking steps to improve the state of affairs for workers. But, as Ambassador Jeenbaev reiterated, "in a time of crisis, this initiative has to be spread more in the world." Be the first to Write a Comment! Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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